Pumpkin-ing

While heading home from the Fall Conference we stopped by the Carlton Farm’s Pumpkin patch, just like we did last year. This time we met up with some friends, Wesley, Kelly, Jeremy, Hiro and Isamu. We started off our adventure by taking a hay ride down to the patch. Kayley enjoyed looking at the people and feeling hay for the first time. 

The hay ride

Then, Jeremy, Isamu, Andrew, Kayley and I went through the corn maze. We had to find the 10 riddles to figure out what the secret phrase was. They give you a map to use if you want so you won’t get too lost. We had fun zigzagging through the maze together trying to figure out the best way to go to each riddle. I think Kayley enjoyed looking at all the corn and at the people (sometimes very hyper children) that passed us by. It was a bit chilly when we first got there, so we had Kayley’s hood up. Well, her hood is a bit too big for her and loves to fall down over her face. So every once and a while she’s start making noise or kicking her feet in her Bjorn to get our attention to say “I can’t see!”

The maze

Following Isamu through the maze. He had great sense of direction!

In the middle of the corn maze

After we successfully found each riddle and discovered the secret phrase we joined Wesley, Kelly and Hiro in the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkins. I found two small ones that I thought would be cute for Kayley, so I held them both up to her at the same time to see which one got her attention the most. She reached out and hit both of them at the same time! We ended up getting both. One is hers and one is Hoshi’s, I just don’t know which is which.

Looking for the perfect pumpkins

It was fun to point out pumpkins to her and talk to her about what pumpkins are and what color they are, etc. We ended up getting five pumpkins this year. No there is no secret message in the number of pumpkins we bought this year. =P This year we bought one for each member of our family including the cat, and one to make something out of. I think I’m going to make some baby food for Kayley and some pumpkin bread for us. I’ve never made pumpkin bread before, so we’ll see how that turns out. Hopefully delicious.  

Riding in the wheelbarrow and checking out our pumpkins

We had a great time with our friends at the pumpkin patch. I hope we can make going to Carlton Farm after Fall Conference our little family’s tradition and it would be fun to have people join us on the adventure again. Next year Kayley will probably be walking through the patch! Oh that’s going to be so much fun!

Pumpkins!

FBC Fall Conference

This last weekend we headed up to Warm Beach to attend our church’s Fall Conference. We had quite a packed day as we headed up there. We started if off by visiting my grandma in the hospital. She had a heart attack last week and was admitted to the hospitals to make sure she was okay and to have some tests done. She’s home now, thank God. But we wanted to make sure we saw her before we were gone for the weekend. Kayley was a wonderful visitor and made Gram Bell light up whenever she smiled. We were very glad we were able to stop by and see her and cheer her up a bit before heading up north.

Our next stop was the outlets for some shopping. Kayley got to ride around in her umbrella stroller for the first time and seemed to enjoy being able to look straight ahead and check out all the sights right in front of her instead of just being able to see whoever is pushing her. Plus, Kayley really enjoys sitting whenever and wherever she can. We ended up only buying things for Kayley: a couple warm PJs and some 9 month long sleeve onsies and some pants since it’s starting to get cold and wet outside. We had the pleasure of running into Pastor Craig and his wife Lois at the outlets and ended up running into them again at Five Guys where we all ended up having dinner before driving the last little bit to Warm Beach.

She just woke up from a nap before we put her in her umbrella stroller for the first time. I think she was a bit confused before she decided it was a fun thing

 Going to a conference with a baby who basically only breast feeds is a lot of work! Especially when she doesn’t take a bottle (we kind of gave that up…). There’s no leaving her in the nursery with a snack to hold her over until mommy is done and comes back to feed her. This was the first weekend excursion we had where we had a set schedule, and Kayley’s schedule had to work around it, instead of having no schedule at all and planning our day around her. It was different to say the least. Plus, when you have a baby who loves to look at everyone and everything, and refuses to take naps when she’s tired because she just wants to look and study everything, it is also hard. You end up having a baby who is so tired she doesn’t know what to do with herself, and ends up not sleeping well at night because she probably is afraid she’s going to be missing out on something.

Kayley loved being at the Fall Conference though! She loved being with her friends in the nursery, she seemed to really enjoy the walk we went on in the woods, she loved seeing so many people around her all the time who would stop and say hello, and she loved all the hugs and smiles people gave her. We have a very loving church family and I think she’s starting to get the idea that she’s a part of it!

Andrew and I enjoyed our time at Fall Conference too. Yes we were tired, but it was great to be with our church family all weekend long. We even had the opportunity to lead the junior higher and high schoolers in worship together – the first time we’ve ever led worship together! We didn’t get to attend much of the sermons or small groups since we were leading youth worship, but it was great to hear bits and pieces about them and what people got from them. I’m looking forward to listening to them online since I didn’t get to listen to any of the sermons at all. As soon as we were done with worship, Kayley would be hungry, and by the time she was done eating, the sermons were done. But I really enjoyed getting to know individuals from church more by sharing a meal with them, or bumping into them during our walk in the woods down to the water, or helping out in the nursery with them.

Someone asked us if we plan on attending next year. We immediately said yes in unison. They then asked us if we could change our decision about going to fall conference this year, would we? We both replied with a firm no. Over all we both enjoyed our time at Fall Conference and hope even more people come next year. This was my third year going, and Andrew’s fourth, and it’s something we both look forward to. So we both can’t wait until next year when Kayley will be almost a year and a half and probably trying to run all over the place. 

The beautiful view down at the water

On our walk we saw many spider and showed them to Kayley

Kayley also got to see her first banana slug (these make me think of Humboldt)

And a snake! It was hard to get a picture of since it was slithering away in fright (I almost stepped on it... I didn't see it on the path at first since I was looking at all the plants on the side of the path)

This trip was the last time Kayley will use her Moses Basket. As you can see, she is almost the same length as it

Family time at Fall Conference

Sitting

It has been amazing! In just the last couple of days, Kayley has gone from needing a lot of assistance with sitting up to needing barely at all. It used to be whenever she looked up, or slightly leaned to the side she would fall over right away. Now she can sit, lean forward to get a toy and sit back up. She can lean a bit to the side and counter her balance if she leans too far. She can look up at me without always falling backwards. It’s just so cool! She still is working on this ability, but she has grown so much in just the last couple of days. Way to go Kayley!

Nothing around her to help her sit. She's so proud and happy about it!

Sitting while leaning, and sporting her new headband from Jontal

In the Midst of It

The last two weeks have been long and tiring. For about the last three weeks Kayley has been more fussy and clingy than her previous first 3 months of life. At first we figured she was either growing or a tooth was coming in, but as the fussing continued and no teeth have shown up and typically a child doesn’t experience growth pains for this long of time, we think she has thus entered a new phase in her life. We think giving her the little snack of solid food each day is helping to give her the energy she needs as she continues to develop, and she’s been sleeping better at night (except for when she has gas…). Part of me wants to up the amount of solid food we’re giving her each day, but I don’t think her digestive system is ready for that. So, for now we’ll continue with the one ounce snack each day in the afternoon. She is loving it!

The last couple weeks have also been long because Andrew’s work schedule has been a bit crazy. The last couple weeks he has been doing more afterhours work than we both thought he would be doing with his new role at his job. And last week he worked a couple 10 hour days in a row and had pager duty for a company. This week he’s on pager duty again, this time for a different client whom he expects to have some late night calls from. This means Andrew has been very tired when he gets home, and him coming home doesn’t mean he’s done with work. This also means I haven’t been getting my little breaks from Kayley at night, and since she’s been more fussy and clingy, I haven’t really gotten them during the day either. So, poor Kayley has been dealing with two tired parents. All the while the cat has been seeking attention so much so that she doesn’t mind if it comes from a drool covered little hand.

BUT! Even though our household has been tired and worn out, that doesn’t mean God hasn’t been blessing us with some great times. In the midst of everything going on, we were all able to…

• Have a family date at Panera for lunch last week

Chowin' down. Andrew' on his salad, Kayley on her giraffe.

• Enjoy the start of the new bible study that we are leading with our friends Wes and Kelly

• I’ve been able to teach the 1^st and 2^nd graders at church the last two weeks

• Kayley has enjoyed a variety of solid foods and we have enjoyed giving them to her

She got peas everywhere! I am currently trying to teach her to keep her hands down

• Our niece Sara and her boyfriend came to visit us and we spent Saturday hanging out with them

• Kayley is starting to be able to sit by herself! Hopfully I'll have a picture soon

•  I have been able to go to my women’s bible study and complete all my homework for it

•  Kayley and I went to the zoo with our friends Hsin-I and baby Kaylin

Enjoying the sun at the zoo!

Kaylin's first time at the zoo! Hsin-I is showing her the bears

• Kayley got to video-chat with her cousin Addie who is 6 months older than her. It was their first time seeing each other

•  We had some friends over for dinner before our friend Gifford went to CA for a few months

•  Kayley was happy in her jumper for a straight hour so I was able to have time studying God’s Word

Jumper time!

• Kayley loves to laugh when Andrew exercises with her

One, and two and three! Note: Do not attempt to exercise with your baby right after she ate

• Andrew got spit on in the face (and in his mouth a bit) – okay that’s not necessarily good, but it made us laugh!

• I found a way to have Kayley safe and happy in the kitchen with me so I have more opportunities to make dinner

• Hoshi is letting Kayley pet her more, and letting Kayley “walk” after her  

Hoshi chillin' on the floor with Kayley next to her

• I am becoming more comfortable going on outings by myself with Kayley. We really enjoy visiting our friend’s donuts shop and the Yakima Fruit Market 

• Kayley has another play-date with Kaylin

Friends holding hands

• There was one night where I slept from 10pm to 6am, the first time in a long time! Kayley’s been doing it most nights for a while, but my internal clock still goes off around 3 or 4am.

• Our home is clean (we both like having a clean home)

• Andrew and Kayley had some great morning time together on Sunday before Church

Andrew and Kayley reading the Bible at breakfast

God has blessed us with more than that the last couple weeks, but those are the things that stand out to me right now.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Last week when my mom was here, we gave Kayley her first taste of solid food. We gave her a small taste of banana and let her suck on a watermelon cube. She loved both of them! Sunday we gave her a little taste of golden acorn squash, which she also really liked. And yesterday Kayley had her first little solid food meal instead of just a small sample. 

About to give Kayley her first solid food meal

She loved it! I mashed up part of a banana for her, put a bib on Kayley and got a seat ready for her to eat from (her high chair is currently in storage, and we still need to buy a chair it will connect to). She was so excited to eat the banana. She kept trying to “help” bring the spoon closer to her mouth. At one point she even grabbed at the spoon, got some banana mush on her fingers and stuck her fingers in her mouth. She even discovered that some banana was getting stuck on her bib, so when I wasn’t presenting her with a new small bite, she started sucking on her bib to get more banana. I think she really likes it. 

Helping me put more banana into her mouth

More please!

MmmMMmM This is good!

 It looks like we’ll be really staring her on solid foods sooner than I originally though. We never had a set time for it anyway; we decided we would just take our cue from her and give her solids when she showed signs of being ready and willing. Z, our pediatrician, said we could introduce solids to her at any time now (most babies are introduced to solids between 4 and 6 months of age), and since Kayley has been growing so fast, she might show signs of needing and wanting solids sooner rather than later.

Kayley has been watching us eat for a while and slowly showing more interest in the things that go in our mouths. And for the past couple of nights Kayley hasn’t been sleeping as well as she has been, plus she has been more hungry and fussy during the day. These can all be signs of needing more in her diet than just mama milk and being ready for the introduction of solids. Of course they can also be signs that a child is going through a growth spurt (which is possible) or that a tooth is coming in (haven’t seen anything yet!). But we decided to go ahead and give her her first small meal since she seems so interested in it. 

All messy after her meal

Kayley will get t eat banana again today, and probably tomorrow. It has been advised that we stick to one food for a few days to watch out for allergic reactions. And since allergies run in my family, that is something I really want to look out for! I really hope she doesn’t have food allergies like me. I’m totally looking forward to making her food though. I think I’ll get her little food processor out today and make sure it’s ready to use. I’m happy that it’s still summer so the Yakima Food Market is open so we have a great selection of fruits and vegetables to introduce to her.

Four Month Check-up

Kayley and I got back from her 4 month check-up late this afternoon. She’s doing great! Kayley has gotten a lot bigger since her last check-up at two and a halfmonths. Here’s how big she is:

Weight: 15lbs and 5oz (90^th percentile)

Height: 27 inches (›95^th percentile)

Head Circumference: 15 ¾ inches (25^th percentile)

She’s a big girl! Z says she’s closer to the average size of a 6 month old. In fact, she’s slowly growing out of her 6 month clothing and into her 6/9 month size clothes. And she only has 3 more inches to go until she’s too big for her Graco SnugRide 30. Then we’ll have to upgrade her to her other car seat and say bye-bye to our snap-and-go system. Hmm we should see how the other car seat fits in our car.

As for Kayley’s immunizations, well since we went in last Kayley has learned how to use her tongue to push out her oral immunization. She thus got it all over her chin and cheeks. As for her two jabs, one in her right thigh and one in her left, they made her cry, which almost made me cry. =( She calmed down faster than her last shots though. She was such a great little girl! Though now we’re dealing with a fussy baby who doesn’t like that her legs are hurting. She’s taking it like a champ though. I’m so proud of her.

We survived the doctor visit and both came out with a smile.

Also, notice the banner changed to this:

I figure since Kayley has grown so much, then I need a more recent picture of her at the top of her blog. Thanks, mom, for taking this great pictures of Kayley. And thank you, Karlyn, for making the fun hat.  Enjoy the new banner everyone!

Labor Day Weekend with Maimie

This last Friday my mom flew in from Cali to visit us. You can bet she was super excited to see Kayley again, and we were all excited to see her too (I missed my mom!). Kayley and I went to the airport to pick my mom up, but instead of picking her up on the street like planned, we surprised her at the baggage claim area. And that is how our fun packed weekend began. 

*Maimie is the name all my mom's grand kids call her. 

Friday we didn’t do much but hang out and eat some great food together, but Saturday we spent the day at the zoo together. We spent the extra money to walk through the Dino special exhibit, where there were animatronics dinosaurs, some that even spit our water to simulate how they would spit out acid on their prey. Andrew, Kayley and I even ran in fright from a T-rex. Thankfully he was stuck in place otherwise I am sure he would have out run us.

Some of the rules for seeing the dinos

AAaaaahhhhhh! Sharp Tooth!!!!

My mom and Kayley had fun looking at some birds in the tropical rainforest. And my mom, Andrew and I had fun watching how excited Kayley got about being close to goats and being able to pet them. She was laughing and squealing with delight as she reached out for them. It was so cute! She really seems to like animals. She loved looking at the leopard too.

Watching the birds

Goats!

We had a wonderful day at the zoo!

That night my mom babysat Kayley for us so we could have our first movie outing since Kayley was born and finally see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2! We went all out on our theater snack, which for us means an icee to share and two types of candy. It was a great birthday gift and my mom loved spending the time with Kayley. Kayley even took a bottle from her (yes, yes. The bottle battle goes on).

Harry Potter time!

Sunday we went to church and Kayley was able to spend some time with her little friend Kaylin. After that we spent some time at my sister’s house enjoying the beautiful sunny weather before going to my cousin’s little one’s first birthday. It was very cute to watch Cadence try to figure out why everyone was watching her when a huge piece of cake was put in front of her. Sometimes it seemed like she was asking “Really? I can eat this? Then what are you all looking at?” But she finally got into it.

Kayley and Kaylin

Enjoying the sun!

Cadence and her cake.

 That night we went out to dinner with my sister, her hubby and their two girls to celebrate Katie’s birthday. We ate at the Zen Garden where we all picked a dish to share with everyone. They had some pretty good food (basically the weekend was full of wonderful food). And some fairly interesting dishes that ended up being quite tasty. After dinner we went to a frozen yogurt place for dessert that is basically like Menchies. Katie approved of her birthday outing, and we all had a great time together. 

Kayley picking what she want to have us eat

Katie approving of her birthday

On Labor Day, part of my family got together for a BBQ at my aunt’s house. It was the first time all the little kids were together on that side of the family. Kayley loved watching them all run around and play, and it looked like she was wishing she was bigger and more mobile so she could join them. The food was phenomenal! Everyone brought a side dish and something to BBQ to share. What a tasty assortment of food! Oh I could always eat like that! Plus, it was great to spend so much time with family. The extra bonus was that my mom was there to spend it with us, and that the sun was out. Of Mr. Sun, how I have been longing to enjoy your warming rays of light!

BBQ family hangout

Kayley, her aunt Heidi and cousins Hattie and Roland

My mom’s visit ended with my mom, Kayley and I spending yesterday together. We started the morning slow and easy since Kayley slept in again. Then the three of us went up to Mukeltio to eat at the Ivar’s restaurant on the waterfront. We had a beautiful view, and Kayley was in a great disposition. A little squirmy, but that’s just because she loves to move around. My mom enjoyed holding Kayley in her arms while she ate, and while Kayley babbled and sang for us. We then took a walk down to the park to enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and waterfront. It was such a lovely day that we also went down to the Edmonds waterfront to enjoy God’s nature there. Kayley loved watching the waves and bubble on the shore. It was a great last day hanging out with one another.

Enjoying the beautiful view and watching the ferries

Ivar's lunch

Watching the waves and bubbles

Oh! Friday we let Kayley have her first little taste of solid food. We first gave her a tiny mashed up piece of banana. At first she wasn’t so sure about it, but as she moved the piece around in her mouth she began to get really excited about it and wanted more. We also let her suck on a watermelon cube to get some of the juice out of it (though she tried to gum it too), and she seemed to really like that as well. We’re not switching her over to solids quite yet, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get little tasters.